To avoid bad surprises, go with Vim basic. That Vim tiny is a stripped down version of Vim and you may not get all the Vim features in it. The Vim that you know and love to use is Vim Basic. Press to keep the current choice, or type selection number: There are 5 choices for the alternative editor (providing /usr/bin/editor). The output will present you all the text editors installed on your system and you’ll have to select one of them as the default editor. In the terminal, type the following command: sudo update-alternatives -config editor What you can do is to change the default text editor to Vim in Ubuntu and other Debian based distributions.

Since Nano is the default text editor in Ubuntu, you might not like that the files are being opened in Nano. But some command line utilities allow you to edit their configuration files in the default text editor. Normally, when you have to edit a file in the terminal, you use vim filename command for that. You can also split this command up - for example, type :w and press enter to write the file to disk without quitting or type :q to quit vi without saving the file.Make Vim the default editor in Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions Type :wq and press enter to write the file to disk and quit vi. First, ensure you’re in command mode by pressing the escape key (pressing the escape key again does nothing if you’re already in command mode.) You can save and quit vi from command mode.

RELATED: How to Install Notepad++ on Linux (and 5 Alternatives to Try) Saving and Quitting Once you’re done in insert mode, press the escape key to return to command mode.

Start typing and Vi will insert the characters you type into the file rather than trying to interpret them as commands. Entering insert mode is easy once you know it exists - just press the i key once after you’ve positioned the cursor in command mode. Position your cursor at the desired location and press the p key to paste the text you copied or cut.Īside from command mode, the other mode you need to know about is insert mode, which allows you to insert text in Vi. Move your cursor to select text, and then press y to copy the selected text or x to cut it. Position the cursor at the left or right side of the text you want to copy and press the v key. You can select, copy, cut and paste text in command mode.

Vi editor in ubuntu vs mac